Indoor Signal Focusing by Means of Fresnel Zone Plate Lens Attached to Building Wall

Abstract

A simple inexpensive on-wall Fresnel zone plate (FZP) lens for indoor focusing of microwave signals is studied. It consists of concentric metal rings mounted on the outside of an exterior building wall. In our theoretical and empirical work the on-wall FZP lens is illuminated normally by a plane or spherical wave, of vertical or horizontal polarization, but other, more general incidence situations can be treated by similar means. The scalar quasi-optical focusing theory of the free-space zone plate has been modified and used for design and analysis of one-, two-, and three-ring on-wall FZP lenses. It is found that the presence of the wall does not change the FZP lens focusing efficiency significantly, but it has a strong axial defocusing effect. A 2-GHz FZP lens assembly consisting of three metal rings made out of thin antimosquito mesh has a focusing efficiency of about 15 dB (measured) and 14 dB (calculated), and axial defocusing of about 0.22 m. Some variations of on-wall/on-roof FZP lenses and their feasible applications in the microwave/millimeter-wave communication links are also discussed.